The U.S. economy shed 92,000 jobs in February and the national unemployment rate ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 4.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.
Job losses occurred across most sectors, including healthcare (-28,000), primarily because of strikes by nurses and other healthcare staff in California, Hawaii, and New York. Prior to February, healthcare had been one of the strongest sectors of the U.S. economy, adding an average of 36,000 jobs each month over the past 12 months.
Employment in the information sector continued to trend down in February (-11,000). Prior to February, job losses in the information sector averaged -5,000 per month, but in February that number more than doubled.
Federal government employment continued to decline (-10,000) in February. Since October 2024, the federal workforce has decreased by 11%.
Job losses also occurred in other industries: manufacturing (-12,000); construction (-11,000); and transportation and warehousing (-11,000). BLS said jobs in transportation and warehousing have declined by 2.4% (-157,000) since February 2025.
One bright spot was the social assistance sector, which continued its upward trend in February (+9,000) driven by employment gains in individual and family services (+12,000).
In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 15
cents, or 0.4% to $37.32. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.8%.
The BLS also revised downward its preliminary job numbers previously released for December and January. December employment numbers were lowered by -65,000, changing the previously reported gain of +48,000 jobs to a loss of -17,000. The January jobs number was revised down by -4,000, which changed the previously reported gain of +130,000 to +126,000.
The stock market fell early Friday morning after the employment report was released, as investors weighed the weak jobs report and the impact of the war in the Middle East, which has caused a sharp rise in oil prices and stoked fears of inflation. The Dow was down 1.2%, and the S&P 500 had sunk 1% by mid-morning.
The BLS is scheduled to release a state breakdown of January unemployment data on April 8 and February state unemployment data on April 22.
